VEDIC SOCIETY.

progress of the Hindus, however, differed considerably
from those which underlie the social progress ol modern
Europe. The difference is, indeed so striking, that not
a few social reformers at the present day— Hindu as well
on lined different as non-Hindu — who are imbued with

WKSKS ^St Western ideas, and who take Western
ety has advanced.

soc;ety as thejr modcj| ascribe the
origin of such un- Western, and therefore, according to
them, retrogressive customs, as the seclusion of women,
their early marriage, and the non-marriage of widows,
to Hindu degeneracy.

There are reasons to conclude that such customs vvcic
absent in the Vedic period, especially in the earlier por-

tion of it. Indo-Aryan society then presentee? many
points of resemblance with the Aryan society of modern
Europe. Ladies then enjoyed considerable amount of

Freedom in the freedom. They were ribt married early;
earlier Vedic pc-
riod, they often chose their own husbands;

they did not lead a secluded life ; they danced and sang ;
learned women took part in philosophical disputations in
public assemblies; widows if they chose, could marry
again. But, this freedom appears to have been coexistent
with a laxity of sexual morals unknown in later tiroes.*

* There was similar iaxity Juv.or.g several other peoples of antiquity.